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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28225593">Memento</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/capitalistrodent/pseuds/capitalistrodent'>capitalistrodent</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Promise [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Bittersweet, Force Bond (Star Wars), Gen, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Parallels, i'm so sorry for the last fic here's my penance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:41:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,650</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28225593</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/capitalistrodent/pseuds/capitalistrodent</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p><b>Memento</b><br/><i>noun, Latin</i><br/>an object kept as a reminder or souvenir of a person or event</p><p>Grogu uttered his very first word as he and his father said goodbye, and Luke learns just how much meaning that single, innocent word contained.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Din Djarin &amp; Grogu | Baby Yoda, Grogu | Baby Yoda &amp; Luke Skywalker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Promise [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2067696</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>343</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Memento</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A few days ago, I wrote <i><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28160112">Dada</a></i> to get some post-finale feels out and it was a truckload of pain and tears then after a while I thought, “WHY?!”</p><p>So let’s just say this is my form of penance... sort of.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“All right, little one. Are you ready?”</p><p>Luke glanced down at his new charge as he powered up the X-wing. He was a cute, little green creature— <em>Grogu,</em> the child told him through their telepathic link— so eerily similar to another little green creature he had encountered in the swamps of Dagobah.</p><p>
  <em>Had Master Yoda... reproduced? With whom?</em>
</p><p>Luke shuddered at the thought. He felt a little guilty for thinking it was mildly revolting, but to be honest, it really was an uncomfortable thought.</p><p>Grogu must’ve felt his reaction— both physically as he sat on Luke’s lap and mentally through their link— and the kid cocked his head up at him and cooed questioningly.</p><p>“Do you know Master Yoda?” asked Luke.</p><p>The child cooed again, a little confused as he pondered the question, but they both felt a slight touch of recognition at the name. They would have to explore that and Grogu’s other missing memories once they arrive at the academy.</p><p>“Is he your father?” Luke asked again.</p><p>Grogu’s reaction was firm and sure this time, letting Luke know in no uncertain terms that the answer was a resounding <em>No.</em> He might not remember much due to years of constant repression so biological connection still wasn’t completely off the table, but the child knew in his heart that Yoda wasn’t his sire. Not in the way that mattered, anyway.</p><p>No, because as Luke explored their bond further, there was only one person the child loved as a father.</p><p>His mind was quickly filled with startlingly clear images, all in the perspective of someone so small looking up at a faceless man in shiny armor. It should’ve inspired fear and unease in someone— not just to a child but even to a grown adult— whenever a Mandalorian warrior armed to the teeth came near. But Grogu, whose heart was disturbingly filled with fear and anger, felt none of those things whenever he thought of <em>Father.</em></p><p><em>Father </em>was safety, as an image of the Mandalorian fighting off countless mercenaries, creatures, and Imperials came to mind.</p><p><em>Father </em>was strength, as Grogu remembered being rocked inside a sling pouch while the Mandalorian carried him and all their belongings to the nearest town on foot.</p><p><em>Father</em> was warmth, as he huddled close to the Mandalorian’s hip in the wreckage of their ship while stuck in an icy cave. Another offshoot image accompanied it: both of them sipping bone broth in companionable silence as Grogu delighted himself with a first glimpse of his father’s chin and mouth.</p><p><em>Father</em> was encouragement, as the Mandalorian and another woman— Ahsoka, Luke gleaned from his thoughts— coaxed him to use his powers to get his favorite toy.</p><p><em>Father</em> was laughter, every time the Mandalorian would call Grogu by his name, his wonder and amusement strongly coloring the Force around them and his chuckles became music to the little one’s ears.</p><p><em>Father</em> was affection, and the child’s memory of this was equal parts joy and sadness as he quickly skimmed through every single moment they had been together, craving the warm, solid presence of the Mandalorian’s arm around him.</p><p>The strength of Grogu’s remembrance was so powerful that Luke momentarily forgot that these memories weren’t his own. Tears ran down his cheek, his heart full of joy and wonder and just pure <em>love </em>as kind, brown eyes swam through his vision and a pleasantly stubbled cheek itched at his fingertips.</p><p>This was the only image with a face in all of Grogu’s memories of <em>Father</em>, and Luke realized that it had been the first time the two had seen each other without any barriers.</p><p>His heart ached at the thought that it could also be their last. After all, the moment he had seen his own father’s face had also been the first and last time as Anakin Skywalker uttered his last words and came back to the Light.</p><p>
  <em>Just for once, let me look on you with my own eyes.</em>
</p><p>Luke wiped his tears with one hand as he rubbed soothing circles on Grogu’s back with the other, thinking of how he would have to go about teaching his new student. Attachment was forbidden by the Jedi Code of old, but now that he was older and a little bit wiser, he knew that life wasn’t so easily black and white. He still remembered the pain of his father’s passing and the sudden deaths of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, sometimes still wishing that he had a little more time to say goodbye. He was already a young adult of nineteen when he first experienced that kind of loss and it still threatened to floor him from time to time.</p><p>Grogu was much older than him, old enough to have memories of the time when the Jedi still flourished, but he was still just a child. A child who had nothing but a lifetime of some joy and near-constant pain and fear.</p><p>The pain, fear, and anger never left, but more recently they had taken a back seat and were instead overpowered by safety, strength, warmth, encouragement, laughter, and affection.</p><p>Love.</p><p>
  <em>Father.</em>
</p><p>A father whose child he was about to take away to an undisclosed location to train in the ways of the Force for an indefinite amount of time.</p><p>Artoo beeped to confirm that the hyperspace coordinates had been set. As the viewport slowly morphed into lines of blue, he felt Grogu shift on his lap to look behind the chair. It wasn’t possible to see anything besides the interior of the X-wing, but he knew the direction the child was going for: the Imperial light cruiser where his father still stood.</p><p>A warm drop of liquid dripped onto Luke’s flesh hand, then another, until it became a small, steady stream soaking his sleeve and the child’s robes. Grogu was shaking, clearly trying not to throw a fit and embarrass himself in front of a stranger— for that was essentially what Luke was to him; kind and powerful, but a stranger nonetheless, unlike Father— and his end of their telepathic bond was dimming close.</p><p>Nevertheless, Luke caught a glimpse before he was completely shut out: an incapacitating shockwave of sorrow, longing, a hint of regret, and even after everything, love.</p><p>“Dada,” cooed Grogu in a hushed whisper, the word loaded with everything the Mandalorian was to him, hoping his father could hear him somehow. In his three little fingers he clutched a silver pendant that had previously been hidden under his robes.</p><p>(Later on, Luke would learn it was a Mythosaur, a massive creature that used to run rampant over Mandalore in ages long past.</p><p>It had been given to the Mandalorian when he was taken in as a foundling, until he had passed it down to Grogu who had become his own foundling.</p><p>A symbol of belonging; of protection; of family.)</p><p>Luke felt like he was suddenly back on the second Death Star, then in front of his father’s funeral pyre, his father’s charred helmet safely tucked under his arm.</p><p>The star lines turned into a vibrant full burst of glowing blue, and the X-wing disappeared into hyperspace.</p><p>Luke left the ship on autopilot as he sat back in his chair, continuing to rub soothing circles on Grogu’s back and sending equally soothing thoughts through their bond. The child had stopped shaking but his tears still flowed freely, not once letting go of the pendant.</p><p>It symbolized the child’s attachment but Luke couldn’t find it in himself to take it away. Attachment wasn’t the Jedi way, but neither was cruelty.</p><p>He was to be the child’s teacher in the ways of the Force, and in the course of their education perhaps he, too, would learn more about something just as important.</p><p>Balance.</p><p><em>I’ll see you again. I promise,</em> the Mandalorian had vowed.</p><p>He needed to meditate more on this, but Luke decided right then that when the Force finally willed that time to come, he wouldn’t interfere.</p><p>Besides, little Ben was also going to be his student and Leia would surely kill him if he refused to let her see her son.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Din gripped the dashboard tightly as he pressed up against the light cruiser’s viewport, his helmet still forgotten beside him. He didn’t know how he had gotten there; his mind was still a blank, his limbs disembodied.</p><p>He felt detached, floating on thin air, but there was no freedom or lightness involved. There was only a debilitating ache and heaviness in his heart.</p><p>The X-wing flew out of the hangar and stopped right in front of the viewport. Then there was a stillness to it that he knew to be the moment before the ship jumped to hyperspace, and as he gripped the beskar ball tightly in his fist, he wished nothing more than to be able to see into the X-wing’s cockpit.</p><p>Just a final glimpse. A final goodbye.</p><p>(He doubted that even if he were able to, it wouldn’t be enough. <em>Nothing</em> would ever be enough.)</p><p>But in that moment of stillness, he heard something. Not physically, like it had passed through his eardrums, but it might as well have with how clear it was.</p><p>
  <em>Dada.</em>
</p><p>He might’ve imagined it but he didn’t care. He knew it was real; he knew it was Grogu. He knew it was his son.</p><p>And with that single, precious word, he understood everything that Grogu wanted to say. He had managed to make Din feel it somehow.</p><p>Din still felt like he would collapse under the weight of the universe and his pain, but there was a blanket of comfort over him now, providing him with a shield of protection and hope.</p><p>A light at the end of the tunnel.</p><p>As he watched the X-wing disappear with a muted flash, he knew his promise would be kept, one way or another.</p><p>
  <em>I’ll see you again. I promise.</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>@Disney you better fix this mess OR ELSE 😭</p></blockquote></div></div>
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